TTLA: US-India Relations from 2014 to 2022

1. Full name of doctoral candidate: Quách Thị Huệ 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: February 28, 1985 4. Place of birth: Thai Binh
5. Decision on admission of doctoral students: Decision No. 2775/2020/QD-XHNV dated December 31, 2020, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi.
6. Changes during the training process (if any): After defending the theses, the doctoral candidate changed the title of the thesis from “India-US Relations from 2014 to the present” to “US-India Relations from 2014 to 2022”.
7. Thesis Title: US-India Relations from 2014 to 2022
8. Major: International Relations 9. Code: 9310601.01
10. Scientific supervisor: Prof. Dr. Pham Quang Minh
11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:
- Research Objectives: The main objective of this thesis is to present and analyze the changes in US-India relations (2014-2022). From this, it aims to assess the achievements, limitations, and characteristics of this relationship, and analyze its impact on the region and Vietnam. It also forecasts several scenarios for US-India relations up to 2030 and recommends foreign policy for Vietnam.
- Research subject: US-India relations (2014-2022) in the fields of Politics-Diplomacy, Security-Defense, Economics, and several other areas.
- Research methods: The thesis employs a structural systems approach, levels of analysis, and a multidisciplinary, multi-field, and interdisciplinary approach. Specific research methods include: historical, logical, analytical, synthetic, comparative, predictive, and policy analysis methods.
- New contributions of the thesis: Addressing the research tasks set forth, the thesis will make the following contributions: First, it will identify some theoretical issues related to US-India relations and analyze the factors affecting this relationship during the period 2014-2022. Second, it will clarify the current state of US-India relations in the fields of politics-diplomacy, security-defense, economics, and other areas from an international studies perspective. Third, through analyzing the movement and development of US-India relations, the thesis will assess the achievements and limitations of this relationship and draw conclusions about the characteristics of US-India relations (2014-2022). Fourth, it will assess the impacts of US-India relations on the Indo-Pacific region, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam. Forecasting the trends in US-India relations up to 2030 and recommending foreign policy for Vietnam.
- Conclude:
Firstly, the US-India relationship from 2014 to 2022 saw significant progress and advancements compared to previous periods across all dimensions. This was the most stable and positive period in the relationship, with complementary areas of cooperation. Political and diplomatic relations served as a bridge to other areas, while security and defense were the main pillars and achieved the most successes. Economic and other sectors also overcame obstacles and made considerable progress.
Secondly, despite significant achievements, US-India relations still face several obstacles preventing the two countries from reaching an alliance. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of strong political trust, the fact that shared interests are not the core interests of the two countries, and the impediments to bilateral trade. Furthermore, bilateral cooperation in some areas remains largely one-sided (US supporting India), and some disagreements persist in multilateral diplomacy.
Thirdly, the US-India relationship has both positive and negative impacts on the Indo-Pacific region, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam. The presence of the US and India promotes the region's increasing prosperity and contributes to building a peaceful and stable environment, creating opportunities for cooperation among regional countries. However, competition between major powers also makes it easy for countries in the region to fall into stalemates in their relations and increases regional tensions. Vietnam is not outside this vortex and is generally affected by the US-India relationship. Furthermore, Vietnam receives both opportunities and challenges from the US-India relationship, as the US, China, and India are important partners for Vietnam.
Fourth, the thesis forecasts three possible scenarios for this relationship. Accordingly, it is highly likely that US-India relations will continue to be promoted; economic, trade, and investment cooperation between the US and India will develop strongly; and the two countries will share views on democracy and common interests in the context of China's strong rise, which directly threatens core interests of India and the US in the region.
Fifthly, the thesis offers several policy recommendations for Vietnam to leverage the favorable conditions from its relationship with the US and India for comprehensive national development and to mitigate risks affecting bilateral relations and national interests.
12. Further research directions: Foreign policies of major powers
13. Publications related to the dissertation:

 

- The main purpose of the thesis is to present and analyze to clarify the changes in the US - India relations (2014 - 2022). On that basis, the thesis evaluates the achievements and limitations of the US-India relationship, draws out its characteristics and analyzes the impacts of this relationship on the region and Vietnam; offers several scenarios for US-India relations and foreign policy recommendations for Vietnam.
- The object of the study is the US - India relations (2014 - 2022) in the field of Politics-Diplomacy, Security-Defense, Economy and some other fields.
- Research methods: The thesis studies US-India relations from 2014 to 2022 through structural system approaches, analytical levels, multidisciplinary, multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. Specific methods include: Historical method, Logical method, Analytical methods, Methods of synthesis and comparison, Forecasting methods, Policy analysis…
- New contributions: Solving the proposed research tasks, the thesis will have the following new contributions: First, the thesis presents a number of theoretical issues related to the US - India relationship, analyzing the factors affecting this relationship in the period 2014 - 2022. Second, to clarify the current status of US-India relations in the fields of Politics - Diplomacy, Security - Defense, Economy and some other fields from the perspective of international studies. Third, through analyzing the movement and development of the US - India relationship, the thesis evaluates the achievements and limitations of this relationship, and draws out the characteristics of the US - India relationship (2014 - 2022). Fourth, to assess the impacts of the US-India relationship on the Indo-Pacific region, Southeast Asia and Vietnam; forecast the movement trend of US-India relations to 2030 and make foreign policy recommendations for Vietnam.
With the mentioned contents and approach to international relations, the thesis will supplement and contribute to enriching the results of scientific research on US-India relations.

From the results of the study on the US-India relationship from 2014 to 2022, some conclusions can be drawn as follows:
First, the US-India relationship from 2014 to 2022 has a successor and has made a remarkable development compared to the previous periods in all respects, which is the period when the relationship between the two countries became the most stable and positive with the complementary aspects of cooperation, in which politics - diplomacy developed as a bridge for other fields, security - defense is the main pillar and achieves the most achievements, economy and some other fields also overcome barriers and made significant progress.
Second, the US-India relationship still has some problems that prevent the two countries from reaching an alliance relationship. One of the biggest challenges is the low political trust; the common interests between the two countries are not the core interests, and there have been obstacles in the two countries trade. Besides, the bilateral cooperation in some fields is still mainly one-way (the US supports India) and the two countries still have conflicting views on the multilateral foreign policy.
Third, the US-India relationship has positive and negative impacts on the Indo-Pacific, Southeast Asia and Vietnam. The presence of the US and India promotes the increasingly prosperous development of the region and contributes to building a peaceful and stable environment for the region, creating cooperation opportunities for regional countries. However, the competition between big countries also makes smaller countries in the region easily fall into a deadlock in relations with great countries. Vietnam is also in this vortex and is generally impacted by the US-India relation to the region. In addition, Vietnam receives both opportunities and challenges from the US-India relationship because the US, China and India are all important partners to Vietnam.
Fourth, the thesis forecasts three possible scenarios for this relationship, in which it is likely that US-India relations will continue to be promoted; the economic, trade and investment cooperation between the US and India has developed strongly. The two countries share views on democracy and common interests in the context of China's strong rise, which directly threatens the core interests of India and the US in the region.
Fifth, the thesis makes a number of policy recommendations for Vietnam in order to take advantage of relationship advantages of favorable conditions from the US and India to comprehensively develop the country and limit the risks affecting bilateral relations and national interests.

9. Quach Thi Hue, Le Huy Tuan, (2022), “Adjustment of India's foreign policy and its implications for Vietnam”, Journal of Party History, No. March 2022, ISSN 0936-8477, pp. 77-82.
10. Quach thi Hue, (2022), “India's foreign policy towards Southeast Asia before Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, Jindal Journal of International Affairs Vol.1(6), June 2022, ISSN 2249-8095, pp. 20-34.